Apoplectic as usual at his Nashville rally yesterday, Donald Trump railed against the appropriate decision by Hawaii federal judge Derrick Kahala Watson to issue a Temporary Restraining Order against the implementation of Trump’s most recent Islamaphobic Executive Order.
Judge Watson, the only federal judge who is a Hawaiian American, stated during the emergency hearing yesterday, “Because a reasonable, objective observer — enlightened by specific historical context, contemporaneous public statements, and specific sequence of events leading to its issuance – would conclude that the Executive Order was issued with a purpose to disfavor a particular religion, in spite of its stated, religiously-neutral purpose... the Court finds that Plaintiffs…are likely to succeed on the merits of their Establishment Clause Claim.”
Judge Watson was nominated for the federal bench by President Obama. The judge is a graduate of Harvard College and of Harvard Law School. He was graduated from Harvard Law School in 1991, as was Obama.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (Exxon Mobil's gift to diplomacy) is in Asia and will soon meet with Chinese President Xi Jinpin. The two men will discuss the frequent recent provocations by North Korea’s boy dictator, Kim Jongun. Tillerson, following Trump’s lead, ditched the State Department Press Corps, taking with him on the trip only Erin McPike of Independent Journal Review, a conservative news outlet. McPike has been with IJR for only a few weeks and doesn’t even cover the State Department.
As reported by Politico’s Hadas Gold, the State Department Press Corps is furious, so we sent our East Asia correspondent, associate solitary reporter Ko Il-sun (a Korean national who is based in Seoul), to cover Tillerson’s travels.
On Air Force Three, when Ko told Tillerson about Judge Watson’s ruling, Tillerson said, “S___! I’ll just tell Xi Jinpin that if he’ll nuke Kim Jongun for me, I’ll invite him to give me a good price for Hawaii.”
Trump immediately authorized Tillerson to tell Xi to be prepared to make a deal when Xi visits Trump at Mar-A-Lago in April. And Trump told just-confirmed National Intelligence Director Dan Coats to tell FBI Director James Comey to prevent Judge Watson from leaving his home.
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